About Us

Fashion East is a pioneering non-profit initiative established by the Old Truman Brewery in 2000 to nurture emerging young designers through the difficult early stages of their career. It receives sponsorship funding from Topshop, TOPMAN and The Greater London Authority.

Each season we offer three womenswear and three menswear designers the opportunity to present a catwalk collection to the international press and buyers attending London Fashion Week. Designers receive a bursary, free venue and complete catwalk show production, professional catwalk photographs and video. Designers are also given mentoring, guidance and in-house PR throughout the season from Lulu Kennedy and her team. Designers are selected by Lulu Kennedy and a panel of fashion industry experts. Successes include Richard Nicoll, Holly Fulton, Jonathan Saunders, House of Holland, Gareth Pugh, Marios Schwab, Louise Goldin, Roksanda Ilincic and Meadham Kirchhoff.

In 2005 the team behind Fashion East initiated MAN, an identical support scheme for emerging menswear designers, sponsored by TOPMAN. Successes include Cassette Playa, Christopher Shannon, James Long, JW Anderson, Katie Eary and Jaiden Rva James. Since 2009 we have staged menswear installations on menswear day at London Fashion Week, giving up to ten menswear designers a platform to showcase their collections to UK and international press and buyers. Designers we have worked with include H by Harris, Husam El Odeh, Mr Hare, SIBLING, Lou Dalton, Mattew Miller and Gosha Rubchinskiy.

We also take our designers to a sales show room in Paris each season, giving them the opportunity to showcase their collections to top international buyers.